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Rastin continued to run around the pen, avoid each of the snoutbeast's charges as best he could. His cloak proved to be quite a problem while doing this, so he made a makeshift not at his side so he could run properly. He would dart a glare toward CatDad every so often to emphasize his discomfort, only to watch his father meow and wave as though he were proud. He'd get back at him for this once the greasy yellowblood grew tired of him avoiding the animal, however long that took!

"You're doing it wrong, kid! You gotta tackle 'em!" The man shouted, waving his hands for emphasis.

"SCREW YOU, BUDDY!" Rastin spat, screeching as the snoutbeast let out a battle cry and lunged ever forward. This was insanity, pure insanity!

+20 seconds

After another few rounds of flailing, shouting, and falling on his a**, Rastin's fury was just tipping the scale. The snoutbeast had gotten itself stuck in the mud a time or two, buying Rastin some time to scurry away, but it continued to barrel ever forward. Why was it so bent on knocking him over? Rastin couldn't wrap his head around it!

"Alright, this is getting really frigging old." He growled, staring the snoutbeast down. "You, stop right there, or I'm going to throw you down. I want to go the ******** home and shower."

The snoutbeast seemed phased for a few seconds and eyed Rastin warily, before stepping forward and snorting. Rastin shuffled, keeping his eyes locked on it's face, and moved to inch around the beast. However, as the pair continued it's stare down, Rastin could see an almost pleading look from beneath the beast's stare. ... Did it really want to be tackled down that badly? Was that the only thing it had to live for? He sighed.

"... Fine, but just once, then I get to leave." He said, moving toward the beast again.

The beast, to his surprise, rushed backwards, probably having sensed that Rastin was giving in. Well, if it wanted a chase, he'd give it the best chase he could muster!

+35 seconds

Rastin found himself at another vendor shortly after finishing his bout with the snoutbeast. The food from within the tent smelled really good, like a hearty stew or something similar. However, he was particularly hungry, but still curious enough to check it out.

"Hm, add something to the pot, huh?" He muttered, tilting his head at the sign. What could he add to the pot that would make it taste better? He shoved his hands into his cloak and tugged out the box of mooncakes from before. ... Maybe one of savory flavored cakes would do it some good? He plopped one into the stew, glanced around, and went along his way.

Keionx briefly shuffled through the hay pile. She wasn't expecting to find anything - just to mess it up a little for the wigglers, perhaps. She had discovered that she was a little big to jump into piles of hay - perhaps she had hit a growth spurt or something like it - and that it wasn't as fun as it once had been. Ah well, so be it, she had managed to reconnect with her wigglerhood before, and had come full circle in a lovely way. She didn't need to do that too much - the future, after all, was ahead of her.

And then, miraculously, her hand brushed against something round, smooth, and not hay... a button!

"Oh!" she exclaimed, holding it up. It was unremarkable, probably something a kid had lost. She brought it dutifully to the shopkeeper. "I found this." she said, offering it back, "Thou wilt ensure that its proper owner recieves it?"

the other troll squinted it at for a moment. "Sure." they said, handing her a handful of tickets as they put it away somewhere, "Thanks."

Keionx made a stop at the produce stand before she moved back to her usual guarding spot. Tarnips were going back up, it seemed, so she decided to get ready for that particular windfall, should it return. She traded in a few punkins and a useless totato and smiled - she totally had this.

The snoutbeast exercise had been been horribly humiliating for Psykgi and she resolved to never do that again. Let Leeroi handle the main part of the mud monster wrestling - she was not that kind of gal. As she searched around for some way to clean herself off, she came across a mooncake baking stand... which Ma'am apparently had discovered, because she could see that the swarm had gone absolutely wild devouring all the ingredients they could get their little mandibles on.

"Ma..." she said, wincing as the shopkeeper stomped around on the insect's little scurrying bodies, "Ma, do you really have to do this?" The swarm didn't understand Psykgi's problem. Here, there was food - lots of it. Everywhere. On the ground, on the tables, everywhere. It would feed the growing swarm perfectly, and Psykgi should be happy...

"Ma, seriously, it's rude to scurry about other people's kitchens without their permission." she said to a cluster of cockroaches who tickled her mud-caked skin with interest - she assumed the mud must make her scent... interesting. Lovely.

"Ma, lets go home..." she said, but it was clear that wasn't going to happen - the swarm was too hyped up on all the sugary goodness it was finding. "Look. Ma. I'll make some mooncakes or whatever. I'll give them to you. Then can you leave this place alone? And maybe we can go?" She made an imploring face at the roaches.... gog, she needed a damn shower. "Please?"

The swarm considered. If it upset her charge so, and if Psy would provision her with something else... she would leave this place of food.

"Oh good." Psy said, relieved. That had been a very easy dispute. She washed her hands - "I'll get them out of your way!" she offered cherrily, "Just a sec!"

She cooked up a mediocre batch of mooncakes and left, the swarm flowing behind her like a wave, leaving a somewhat... ransacked kitchen in their wake. She ate one and gave the rest to the swarm, which made quick work of them. "... Well, that at least was fun..." she admitted.

... now to find something to clean off the worst of the now drying mud so that she would be comfortable on the way home.

Treide worked carefully on the dough, kneading and pushing it into form. Eventually, it turned into what she had hoped. Not too watery and not too dry either. The filling she had made was good too. A little bit of a nutty flavor. Putting the ingredients together, it was time to stamp. It was easy to press too hard with how tender the dough was, so the design turned out unevely and a little awkward. Still, she cooked them and watched and...

They were terrific.

She sniffled and ate one of them while CD nommed the other. Why are you sad? He asked her as his head tilted.

"Because I finally did it! I'm really learning."

Yes, your are. CD agreed with a soft bark. Practice makes perfect.

Ewwwwwww. Why were all the things she wanted to put into this pot nasty and not good? CD didn't appreciate his daughters relapse into poor taste. Why in the world... Well, in her defense, the nicely cooked mooncake did sound like a nice addition.... Too bad for her it was god awful and should never have been consumed by trolls. Not the mooncake, but the broth after the mooncake was inserted. The troll behind the pot scowled and began to fix the broth, trying to cover the mistake. CD pushed his daughter away with his nose. Time to get oooout of here!